Speke Bay

This past weekend, my mom and Aunt Amanda decided they needed a break from Mwanza so they planned a special trip to Speke Bay on Lake Victoria. Marcel, mom and Aunt Amanda’s friend, agreed to drive us, but he was a little worried about my car behavior. However, I showed him how good of a travel puppy I am. Seriously, I can be a very chill puppy in the car because I like traveling so much; I think I get it from my mom!

Me and mom on the way to Speke Bay

It only took us about 2 hours to drive from Mwanza to Speke Bay. When we got there, we walked straight to the beach. WOW! I’d never seen anything like it. Powdery white sand and water for as far as I could see. Mom says that Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater lake in the world. It was truly huge! Also, the sand was super fun to dig; much easier than regular dirt. That evening, I ran around and dug tons of holes just to feel the grains of sand slip through my paws.

Digging in the sand

Later on, we took a sunset walk on the beach. I was so content, warm weather, beautiful beach, a vivid sunset, not at all like cold Ithaca! I can’t believe how lucky I am that my mom brought me on this African adventure.

Dipping my toes in the water at sunset

The following morning, my mom decided that I needed to learn how to swim. I actually had no idea what she was talking about, but she said that I have webbed toes and a long snout so I should be able to do this thing called swimming. Anyway, she took me out to the beach and immediately I saw a bird. Birds are some of my favorite creatures and I’m always trying to catch them. Well, this bird that I saw took off over the water and I wanted to catch it so badly, so I dove in ready to chase it as far as possible. However, quickly I realized that the further I went, the deeper the water became and soon I couldn’t touch the bottom anymore. So, I just moved my arms and legs as fast as I could, like running but instead pushing against water. It was a strange sensation, feeling like I was running through water. My mom screamed with excitement and said that I was swimming all on my own. I don’t know what the big deal was, but she sure was excited for me.

I'm swimming for the first time!

Eventually, mom got worried because I wouldn’t give up on chasing the bird. Little did I know that swimming is actually a lot harder than running so she came into the water to save me when I got too tired. She said even though there’s a parasite called schistosomiasis in the lake that we could all just take some pills to make it go away. I’m not worried because I trust my mom, she’s going to be a doctor one day!

I just swam in Lake Victoria!

After swimming, we decided to take a walk along the beach to see if we could find any crocodiles. Mom and I found one the first day when we were walking alone, but she was too scared to stay and look at it. While we were walking some local fishermen came along and one agreed to take a photo of me in his boat. I was really happy because most Tanzanians think I’m going to bite them, which is the funniest things because all I really do is lick. I don’t even have all my adult teeth yet!

I'm on a boat!

We left Speke Bay in the afternoon on Sunday and decided to take a quick drive to the Serengeti to see the Western Corridor Gate. Perhaps the coolest part of the whole trip was this impromptu Serengeti trip. From the window of the car, we spotted some zebras and wildebeest, so mom made us stop because she wanted me to see them up close. We tromped through the brush and into the field and got pretty close to the zebras. I really wanted to play with them, although I’ll admit that I was a little scared too. I was enamored with the zebras and just couldn’t look away, but then as we were taking photos along came the park rangers who yelled at us to get out and stop taking photos, party poopers! Anyhow, it was an amazing experience: a weekend of firsts for me!